


S4 Follow-on

by FindingFeathersSeanchaidh



Series: You Live, You Learn [1]
Category: The Tribe (TV)
Genre: Canon Relationships, Canon diverges after season 4, Drama, F/M, First ever fic., Ronseal Title, This is 20 years old!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2002-07-07
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29860767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FindingFeathersSeanchaidh/pseuds/FindingFeathersSeanchaidh
Summary: And so the grand relocation and re-edit of my largest chunk of fanfiction begins. This was my first ever attempt at fanfiction, a few paragraphs at a time, posted to eyeboards nearly 20 years ago. It does what it says on the tin: it follows on from the end of season 4. It's the sequels that really pick up that ball and start running with it. Nevertheless, here it is: all 9 chapters. I will post one a week to let me get on with re-editing the next part of the trilogy, but it is complete. (I was young and foolish: please don't judge me too harshly!)Ram is dead, but will he stay that way? Ebony has just come face to face with Zoot in her hotel room, after all! In the absence of their charismatic leader, who will take charge of the Technos, or is their downfall assured? What will befall the test subjects and prisoners they leave behind?
Relationships: Amber/Bray (The Tribe), Cloe/Ved (The Tribe), Dee/Patch, Ebony/Jay (The Tribe), Mega/OFC, Pride/Salene, Ryan/Salene (The Tribe)
Series: You Live, You Learn [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2195361





	1. What dreams may come

Ebony froze, too stunned to speak.

“What's wrong, Ebony?” Zoot hissed. “Haven’t you missed me? Didn’t I say I would return? Didn’t you hear my messengers? I will admit, Jaffa was a weak choice, but he believed. Don’t you?”

From somewhere in the depths of her nightmare, she found her voice. “No. No, it can’t be you, you’re dead, they burnt you, you can’t be here, you can’t!”

“Where can’t I be Ebony," he replied, dead white eyes glassy with the sleep of eternity. “I am everywhere you go. I have returned and you are _mine_.”

With that word he lunged forward and made a grab for her. Ebony turned and darted towards the hallway. She screamed Jay’s name. If only I can find the others, she thought, he can’t touch me, not with them there. The hall was deserted. Every room she tried was devoid of life. She stopped running. Her side ached. Catching her breath, Ebony saw she was alone. Zoot had not followed her. Why? She straightened up, took stock of her surroundings, and saw that she was in the corridor leading to the control room. The door lay tantalizingly ajar ahead of her.

“The monitors,” she gasped. “I can find them with the monitors!”

She forced herself to walk forward to the door and cautiously peered through the open crack. The room was empty. Opening the door fully, Ebony walked into the room, careful to turn and closing the door behind her. The flickering from the monitors told her they were still on. As she walked round to face them, she felt her breath freeze in her lungs. Every monitor showed Jay, caught up in a passionate embrace… with _Amber_!

“No!” Ebony sobbed.

“Now, now, Ebony,” said a familiar voice behind her. “Surely by now you know that anyone you love turns to Amber.”

Ebony slowly turned to face Bray.

“I did and now Jay has too,” he taunted. “Just like everyone else you will ever love.”

“You shouldn’t have left Ebony.”

This time, when she spun round, it was to see Ram behind her, the monitors still showing the flickering picture of Jay and Amber.

“I could have given you everything,” Ram continued, his mellifluous voice pouring its words like poison into her ears. “I wanted to take you with me to paradise, but you betrayed me. Now you will have what you’ve earned through your failing loyalty.”

“You were mine once,” said Zoot from the side. “Now you will be mine forever!”

Ebony ran for the door, only to find it now locked. She turned to face her three tormentors but now there was only Zoot. Only Zoot for eternity! She screamed and fought with the door. Arms grabbed her from behind and, in terror, Ebony struggled to free herself, her strength failing even as she did so. She closed her eyes and sobbed.

“No. No.”

\-----------------------------------------------

“Ebony, Ebony!” The voice calling her name now was Amber’s.

“Leave me alone!” Ebony screamed.

“Ebony, it’s okay!” Another familiar voice, Jay’s, cut through the hammering pulse of panic in her mind. “It’s okay, I’m here, it’s all over.”

Ebony opened her eyes and stopped struggling. Before her she saw the plain walls of one of the many hotel rooms that Technos had used as holding cells. She looked down and gasped. On the desk in front of her there was a computer and a headset. Reality space!

“What happened,” she sobbed, her relief now flooding over her in waves. He was here; he was still hers. Her hands reached up and grasped Jay's arms, still resting around her shoulders. He moved round to face her.

“Do you remember when we arrived in the city?” he said, calm and reassuringly solid under her fingertips. “You, me and Amber?”

“Yes.” Ebony nodded, eyes darting from left to right in the search for true memories.

“When we saw those kids with the headsets and went to investigate?”

“Yes.” Another piece slotted into place. So far so good.

“What happened next?”

Ebony frowned. “I waited for you,” she said slowly, her mind struggling to recall, “and Java came to me. She said needed me to help her stop Ram going into reality space forever. She didn't want him to leave her.”

“And then?”

“Um…” The furrows in Ebony’s brow deepened in concentration. “I’m not sure. I remember getting back to the mall with you, but I can’t remember what happened to Java.”

“We didn’t get back to the mall,” said Amber gently. “At least, not with you. When we got back from the headset kids you were gone. We searched for the rest of the day before I persuaded Jay that you might have gone back to the mall alone. If not, it was still the safest place for us. Plus, we would need the others’ help in finding you.”

“But how...”

“She had the help of a few other Technos we think,” Jay answered, spotting the question forming on her tongue. “They got a headset on you and everything after that was fed from your own mind and altered by Ram. Once they brought you back here and plugged you into a variation of the paradise program, Ram could see what you were hoping would happen, what you feared most and then change what seemed to be a dream into a nightmare. But it’s over now,” he assured her. “He’s dead.”

“Dead?”

“He never fully recovered from that cold you gave him,” explained Jay. “He had avoided germs so successfully for so long his immune system was just too weak to overcome it.”

“After he died,” added Amber, “the Technos fell into disarray. Java and Mega both tried to take over, but neither could get enough support behind them. They more or less destroyed themselves in the end.”

“And the others?” Ebony asked, still wondering why there was only the two of them and her in the room.

“The other Mall Rats are searching for the ones who were taken,” Jay cut in. “I could only tell them so much about where to look, although Mega was more helpful: he never really agreed with Ram taking hostages in the first place. We found Cloe locked into a computer just like you were, but we haven't found Ved yet.”

“Come on,” said Amber, casting a glance from Ebony to Jay and extracting her from his arms. “Let’s get you out of here and go see who they’ve found.”

Ebony let Amber gently lead her out of the room into the corridor. It was not until they were a few feet out the door that she realised Jay had not followed them. Still wary from her reality space nightmare, Ebony panicked and ran back into the room. When she entered, she stopped short. Jay had the headset on and his face, or what could be seen of it under the headset, had a grim look. Ebony screamed his name and ran forward only to be grabbed and firmly held back by Amber.

“Let me go,” she screamed, enraged. “No! Let me go, you _cow_!”

“No, Ebony, leave him,” Amber shouted above Ebony's screams. “He has to do this.”

“Why? Ram’s dead, what is there left to do?” Tears of frustration were beginning to run down Ebony’s face.

“Come with me,” said Amber, gently, as if to a frightened child. “Come on: I’ll show you.”

Ebony let Amber lead her out, once again, into the hallway. She walked as if in a dream, letting Amber be her eyes and putting her trust totally in the one who had been her enemy for years. As they neared the door of the control room Ebony pulled back panic rising in her throat. As Amber dragged her onward, all she could see was the very same door, in the very same position, that had turned her bad dream into a full-blown nightmare. The door swung half-open, revealing a figure, the only one that could be seen in the room at this point. The figure turned. As her eyes focused on Bray’s haggard face, Ebony’s screams rang out through the hotel.


	2. A ministering angel shall my sister be

Pride and Lex walked side by side down one of the corridors of the hotel, trying door after door as they went. Some were empty, others locked, a few with one or two unknown faces imprisoned in them, most with batches of headsets or other Techno gear stacked neatly around the walls. When word had got out that their leader was dead, any of the Technos not in the thick of the fighting had dispersed quickly and quietly in several directions. Now, the corridors were deserted but for the pairs of Mall Rats and Ecos wandering in search of prisoners. So far, only a handful of those whom the Technos had taken had been found, Cloe and Patch’s brothers among them. Mega had informed the rescuers, however, that many of the prisoners had been taken to work camps or laboratories, and teams had been sent out to try and retrieve any survivors.

“Let’s try in here,” Pride whispered.

“I don’t know why you’re whispering,” said Lex in full voice. “Any Technos still in the hotel are tied up downstairs. This lot’s long gone.”

“We don’t know that for certain and we certainly don’t know what else we might find instead,” Pride warned, gnomic as ever.

Gingerly, Pride eased the door open. All was dark within. As their eyes began to adjust to the light, Lex spotted a light switch and threw it on. The sight that awaited them when their vision cleared made both young men, hardened as they were, catch their breath. The room had, in times long past, been some kind of function suite. Now the full length of it was filled with rings of test subjects, all as pale as death and staring unceasingly off into space.

“There must be dozens in here,” gasped Pride.

Lex stood silent, his dark eyes surveying every face in turn that he could see. Slowly he moved forward, weaving in amongst the silent crowds. Pride watched his companion stop at every face and peer into it until, eventually, he disappeared from view behind the supports. A minute elapsed, then another, then perhaps five or more, before Pride, frozen in grief and horror, heard Lex call out.

“Pride! Pride, come here. Quick!”

Awoken from his dark reverie, Pride hastened to the source of the cry. Lex was struggling with some of the framework that held the prisoners on their perch. The young man he was fighting to free was someone Pride did not recognise. A friend from before he joined them in the fight against the chosen, Pride reasoned. Working together, they finally succeeded in detaching Lex’s friend from the frame. The young man had once been of a sturdy build, but the tests, and the starvation that went with them, had rendered him lighter than either of them had ever expected.

Lex cradled the young man’s head on his lap and shook him. “Ryan,” he called. “Ryan, can you hear me, mate.”

\-----------------------------------------------

At the sound of Ebony’s screams, Siva ran round the door to her sister.

“It’s okay sis,” she soothed. “It’s okay, he’s real, we all are. Come on now, come on in.”

As Amber moved to a visibly shaken Bray’s side, Ebony let her sister lead her into the room, too much in shock to fight. Inside she saw Salene standing in the centre of the room administering to Alice and Mega sitting in front of a monitor. Siva led her sister over to some chairs sitting in front of a line of monitors and deposited her in one of them.

“You’re safe now,” Siva told her sister as she sat down next to her.

“But Jay...”

“It’s okay, we’re watching him: look.”

Ebony followed her sister’s gaze to the monitor screens. All that could be seen was a matrix of orange lines with two dots: one red, one green. Her sister rattled at the keyboard for a bit and the view zoomed in on the green dot then in onto a dark outdoor scene with Jay in the centre. Dressed in dark clothes that were not of Techno fashion Ebony did not, at first, recognise him. He walked warily through the darkening wilderness. Suddenly he stopped dead and his face paled. Much as he had been shivering before, Ebony could see him start shaking. Jay swerved round, as if hearing a noise behind him, then swerved back again. A mist formed around him, but in the mist, figures moved. One of the figures formed the solid form of a young girl, about Jay’s age. Jay gasped when he saw her, as if he had been punched in the stomach. Ebony thought she could see tears run down his face. He raised a hand as if to touch the girl’s face, but the hand passed straight through her chin. He was crying, Ebony was sure of it. She just wasn’t sure why.

“It’s Grace!” gasped a breathless voice behind her.

Ebony glanced round to see Cloe and May hauling a very ill-looking Ved into the room.

“What’s happenin’?” Ved slurred, still looking and sounding very ill.

“He’s gone to find Ram,” Mega answered from his post at another computer. “Come here, take a look.”

“But I thought Ram was dead!” Ebony cried. She turned to Amber, standing over at the monitors she had been watching with Bray. “You told me he was dead!”

“His body is,” she explained, “but his mind is still in the computer system. He has to die there too.”

“But he can't...” cut in Ved.

“Ved!” Cloe snapped. “I can’t believe you are actually still defending him, and after all he did to you too!”

“I’m not!” Ved protested. “I mean he actually can’t kill him in reality space. Ram’s rigged it so that he’s invulnerable and everyone else isn’t!”

“No!” Ebony screamed and started for the door. May and Siva grabbed her and sat her back down. “Let me go! I have to help him. I’ve gotta get him out of there!”

“You can’t do anything, sis.”

“But he’ll...” she started sobbing hysterically. “I can’t...”

“I could try and help him,” murmured Ved.

“How?” asked Mega. “I’ve already tried everything I can.”

“But you’ve never been in there with him: I have. Get me a headset.”

Obediently, Mega disappeared out a door.

“You can’t go in there!” Cloe scolded, “You’re too weak!”

“He’s my brother! And it’s the only way,” he told her. “Ram set it up so that he could control it from inside without interference from the real world.”

“But Jay’s in there already,” Cloe argued. “It only takes one person to access a control panel.”

“Cloe, this is a little bit more complicated than that,” sighed Ved. “It is a control panel but it’s not like a physical one! It’s one that only Ram is meant to be able to find and get into. I know how he works: I’m the only one with a chance of being able to get into it and alter it. Jay couldn’t, even if we could get a message to him from out here, which we can’t. Once I’m in I’ll need him there to fight Ram too: I’m weak now and couldn’t beat him even when I wasn’t in this state. It’ll take both of us.”

“When you say fight,” Amber cut in, a frown crossing her face, “what exactly do you mean?”

“Ram’s physical body is dead,” explained Ved. “Whether his mind can survive in the system without it, though, is something we don’t know and can’t take the chance on finding out. If we want to get rid of Ram, we have to kill his mind as well as his body.”

“Well yeah, but...” Amber shrugged. “How?”

Bray had been watching the monitors all this time. Now, he pulled Amber over, pointed out something on one of the screens, and whispered in her ear. Amber turned to Salene. Bray moved in front of the screen and blocked it from Salene’s view.

“Salene, how are they doing at the hospital?”

“Oh, um, I’m not sure Amber,” the city leader replied. “We’ve not had any reports for almost an hour, I expect they’re busy.”

“Why don’t we go check,” Amber suggested, linking an arm though her friend’s. “We could bring back more first aid stuff at the same time.”

“Okay,” said Sal slowly, glancing warily between Amber and Bray at this sudden suggestion. “But I should really be here for any others that are found.”

“Oh, I’m sure the others will cope here for a little while without you. You are leader of those in the hospital too, after all,” pointed out Amber. “I’m sure they would love to see you and know you're concerned for them.”

“Well yes,” Sal admitted. “That’s true.”

“Let’s go then.”

The two girls left by one of the side doors and, once the door closed behind them, Bray instantly relaxed and moved from the monitor.

“What’s up Bray?” Alice asked suspiciously.

“Ahem,” Bray coughed, looking a little pale and worried but smiling. “Look who Lex and Pride have found!”

All eyes turned to the monitor. Although Ved and Siva retained the blank looks on their faces, when the others gasped, they realised a friend had been found.

“I can’t believe it,” gasped a stunned Alice. “It's Ryan! Salene will be ecstatic!”

“Will she though?” said May.


End file.
